Rose Gardening Challenges

Rose gardening can be a challenging exercise but you don't have to be an expert to grow roses. Roses are grown successfully in gardens in nearly every different type of climate and environmental condition. Coming in a rainbow of colors and thousands of different modern-day varieties, roses offer a wonderful array of choices to followers of this beloved rose gardening pastime.

Rose gardening is special, though there are numerous recipes for cultivating the perfect rose garden, with even just a few of the basics such as sunshine, water and fertilizer, a rose garden can thrive in any climate. By adapting the following rose gardening tips to your specific needs, you can maintain a lush and lively rose garden.

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Before you plant

Be sure your roses will be in an optimum location where they will receive at least six hours of direct sunlight per day, preferably morning sunshine.

Provide your roses with ample space to grow by digging a hole that is at least two-feet wide and two-feet deep. Add potting soil or organic compost for nutrients.

Keep roses moist by watering diligently for several weeks once you have planted them.

Help your rose garden to flourish

Monitor the pH levels in the soil as roses generally prosper at a pH of about 6.5.

Fertilize in the spring when roses begin to leaf out and continue regularly until just before the arrival of winter frosts.

Remove dead flower heads occasionally to instigate new bloom growth.

Prune your roses at least once per year. With new plants, prune after the first blooming period is over. For older plants, pruning after the winter will help to begin rejuvenation and new growth. In colder climates you may also want to prune just after the first frosts to prevent harsh winter damage.

And always remember, roses love lots of water and proper drainage.

About the Author

Ken Austin

Roses and Rose Gardening

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SAVING SEEDS FROM YOUR GARDEN

For many gardeners, the garden actually begins in January when the first seed catalog arrives in the mailbox. While the cold wind howls outside, we retire to a cozy chair and leaf through the catalog, carefully notating which varieties of lettuce and tomatoes to try and wishing we had the space to plant each and every flower so artfully displayed on its pages.

But have you ever wondered where your great-grandparents acquired the seeds for their gardens, before there were seed catalogs and fancy garden centers?

They saved seeds for the next year from their own gardens!

Saving seeds from your own flowers or vegetables is a wonderful way to fully experience the cycle of plant growth. It’s also much less expensive than buying seeds each spring, and seeds saved from your plants will be well suited to the peculiarities of your own garden’s growing conditions. Not only that, it’s also quite a simple process.

Save seeds only from vigorous, healthy plants. Some plant diseases may be harbored in the seed where it will then be passed on to the next generation of plants. So don’t save seeds from a plant that is obviously diseased or has struggled all season. Collect seeds from the plants that have the characteristics you desire, such as height, hardiness, early or late ripening, flavor or vigor.

It is not recommended to save seeds from hybrid plants. Hybrids are the result of crossing two genetically different parent plants, both of which have been severely inbred to concentrate the desirable characteristics. The first generation, referred to as an F1 hybrid, is superior to the parents. But succeeding generations of plants grown from seed saved from an F1 plant tend to randomly revert to the characteristics of the original inbred ancestor plants.

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